Hoog Catharijne is locked for at least a year at night due to ‘serious nuisance’

The Hoog Catharijne shopping center will now be locked at night due to ‘serious nuisance’. The owner of the shopping center has submitted a request for this and the municipality of Utrecht will give permission for this, the municipality made it known on Friday. The night closure applies between midnight and 6 am and will last at least a year.

Hoog Catharijne is now open 24 hours a day, even after the stores closing time, because the shopping center forms a walking route that connects the Utrecht city center with Utrecht Central Station. According to the municipality, that situation is untenable because the shopping center has become an « attractive meeting and hangout ». Over the past six months « both the number of people and the nuisance and incidents in Hoog Catharijne have increased in the night and the atmosphere has become grim. ». There are regularly fights and there is also serious pollution.

According to the municipality, around thirty to fifty people go into the shopping center every night to sleep, hang out, to deal or use drugs. « It is a fluid group: we see Utrecht residents and migrants from Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. » The municipality states that the increase in Syrian and Algerian youth in particular causes nuisance and contributes to a grim atmosphere. Previous measures have not had the desired effect, while security guards and agents are increasingly confronted with aggressive behavior.

The Utrecht mayor Sharon Dijksma writes in the press release that she finds this measure ‘radical’, « but safety for our residents, visitors and everyone who deals with public order in Hoog Catharijne is paramount ». According to her, a solution also lies with a better national approach to ‘nuisance -giving aliens’.

It is not yet known when the closure will take effect. The municipality wants to lock the shopping center as soon as possible at night, but a permit is first required. Travelers who want to walk from Utrecht Central to the city center at night can use routes outside the shopping center. The municipality also promises to keep an eye on whether the nuisance does not move to other parts of the city due to the night closure.

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